9/9: Village Road East Sod Farm--Crested Caracara; Sandy Hook--Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Black Tern

This weekend had some great birding sandwiched by frustration.

Yesterday we drove up to Sandy Hook in hopes of seeing the Elegant Tern (which would be a lifer) that has been reported there since Labor Day Weekend (and was apparently there at least from August 6 when a photograph of it was misidentified as a "runt" Royal Tern). It started to rain as soon as we were in the car, and stopped and started all the way up to the hook. By the time we got there it was pouring and the birders coming off the fisherman's trail were soaked. We listened to a weather report that said there was a line of storms all the way back to Pennsylvania and that storms would continue for the next 4 to 6 hours. Plus, there was a tornado watch for Brooklyn and southern Queens. Sandy Hook, as the tern flies, is not that far from Brooklyn. We use the parachute jump as a marker when describing where a bird is over the water. So we gave up, turned around. Then it stopped raining before we were out of the park. We pulled into the parking lot of the old Visitor's Center and ran into Scott and Linda who were leading a tour. We hemmed and hawed about whether to stay and then it started to rain again. We left. As soon as we hit the Parkway, it became a beautiful day. We tried to convince ourselves that 10 miles away the weather was still lousy. It was, according to Scott, until around 11, when the weather cleared and they had a great day of birding. Naturally, they found the Elegant Tern.
Frustration.

A really weird report came in on the Jersey bird list yesterday afternoon--a Crested Caracara in Mercer County. This a bird found in Florida, Texas, Arizona--to be in Jersey is a wonderment. But there were no bands or jesses on it to indicate that it was an escapee. But seeing the Elegant Tern was more important to us--we've seen plenty of caracaras. So we planned to go back to Sandy Hook Sunday.

However, the problem today with Sandy Hook is that some kind of triathlon was being held and the park was essentially closed down until noon. I googled instructions to the site of the caracara when I saw this morning that it was still in the same farm field. Not too far from us, though a rather roundabout route. I suggested to Shari that we try for that bird in the morning and then go onto to Sandy Hook.

We arrived at the farm at 10 A.M. "Look for the birders," I said to Shari and then I saw a line of at about 60 cars. We found a place to park not too far down the line. I expected the bird to be in a tree, as it was yesterday. Instead, as soon as we were out of the car, a birder pointed out the bird to us sitting in the field. Boom, we had our bird.

Last week Shari bought an attachment for the scope and a new camera in order to digiscope birds. She practiced a little yesterday, and today she took her first bird digiscope bird photos:

Crested Caracara
all photos: Shari Zirlin

The caracaras are in the falcon family, though they hardly look like falcons. In fact, Peterson put them on the same page with the vultures, which makes sense since they feed mainly on carrion. The consensus on it how it got to New Jersey seems to be that it got caught up in the hurricane last week, was blown north and just kept going. As to why it is in a that particular field, well, as Myron Cohen observed, "Everybody's got to be someplace."

We observed the bird for about a half hour. There is a synagogue across the street from the field and today was Hebrew school orientation day. A lot of the members were wondering why the street was lined with people with big lenses and telescopes. When we explained to them the rarity of the bird they were fascinated--more with how so many people knew about the bird's appearance than about the bird itself. One father picked up his little girl so she could look through our scope. "It's as big as a horse!" she said. Well, things do look out of proportion in a scope.

So happy with that bird, we proceeded to stair step to the other side of the state  by going east, north, east, north, east, south, east and finally north all the way to the tip of Sandy Hook. To get to where the tern had been seen it a long trudge up a sandy trail. Hard work. We weren't a third of the way there when we met a couple of returning birders who told us they'd been out there all morning with no luck. That was discouraging, but, hey, the bird could fly in at any time. It was about 2 1/2 hours before high tide and I recalled that it had been seen when the tide was in. So we continued our trudge. Another birder was near the inlet. He hadn't seen the bird either. We set up our scope. He had driven down from Connecticut. When he found out we were from Jersey he jokingly asked when we weren't looking for the caracara. "Been there, done that." He was impressed.

Black Tern between 2 Common Terns

Still, no Elegant Tern. We had some consolation prizes while we waited. There were a number of Black Terns mixed in with the Common Terns and Black Skimmers. They were firsts for the year.

The Black Skimmers always amuse us, especially when they rest on the beach. They look like they're so depressed that they can't even lift their heads.

"What's the matter, fella?"

And no birding trip to the beach is complete without Shari's favorite:

American Oystercatchers

After almost 2 hours on the beach and no target tern we were about to give up. I didn't feel like the trip was a total loss; besides the terns, skimmers, and oystercatchers, we had Sanderlings, turnstones, and plovers and I got to wade in the ocean which was delightful. We were walking back toward the trail when who should we run into but Scott and Linda and a group of 5 or 6 other birders. We told them we hadn't seen the tern. But I figured with them our luck might change, so instead of returning to the trail, we turned around and tagged along with them. 

A guy and his dog had just scared away all the birds. A few returned to the point and after looking through them, we moved on, across the inlet and on to the "false hook."  I'd looked there previously with no luck and that part of the beach was pretty much empty, except for some skimmers and their young in the stringed off area, reserved for breeding birds. Within that area someone found Buff-breasted Sandpipers and we all managed to get onto these handsome little birds, in very fresh plumage. Linda thought they were young, perhaps only a couple months old. We walked around the perimeter of the area and were able to get close good looks at the birds. Shari took these photos with her regular, telephoto lens.

No Elegant Tern (a west coast bird, by the way) was found. I figured if Scott, Linda, and 5 or 6 other birders didn't spot the bird, it just wasn't going to be there today. We left slightly disappointed. I thought the buffies alone were worth the trip, beauties that they are. Shari really was in twitch mode today--she wanted that tern.

We left the hook at 4 PM. As soon as we got home, I saw an email from Jerseybirds that the Elegant Tern had been sighted--4 PM at the tidal cut. Frustration again.

Lists for the day:
Village Road East Sod Farm
6 species
Canada Goose  24
Mourning Dove  2
Crested Caracara  1    
American Crow  2
Gray Catbird  1    Heard
European Starling  6
Sandy Hook
Comments:    All sightings tip of hook (inlet &false hook) unless noted otherwise.
21 species
Canada Goose  7    Guardian Park
Double-crested Cormorant  5
Great Blue Heron  1    Inland Sea
Turkey Vulture  1
Semipalmated Plover  7
American Oystercatcher  2   
Ruddy Turnstone  25
Sanderling  150
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1
Buff-breasted Sandpiper  2    False Hook. 
Laughing Gull  25
Herring Gull  200
Great Black-backed Gull  10
Black Tern  5    Inlet, mixed in with Common Terns & Black Skimmers
Common Tern  100
Forster's Tern  3
Black Skimmer  35   
Rock Pigeon  1    Fisherman's Trail
Mourning Dove  3    Wires along main road
Gray Catbird  2    Heard along Fisherman's Trail
Northern Cardinal  1    Fisherman's Trail.